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The principal, aka Ted Moynohan, aka Stick-Up-His-Ass, was saying something about upholding the school's attendance policy, but Kate stop listening after he said her name.
"And that is why I have decided that you will be joining our esteemed Model UN club."
Wait, what? Kate thought. The hell. "Um, excuse me?"
Ted, as Kate referred to the principal (to his vast annoyance), glared at her condescendingly for not paying attention to his long rant about her attendance rate. "I said, Miss Daniels, that since you can't be bothered to attend any class besides World Mythology, you will make up your credits by participating in our esteemed Model UN chapter. I expect you to attend every meeting at 4 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays."
Kate raised an eyebrow. You've got to be kidding me. Model UN was a dying club. The way her friend Andrea Nash put it, attendance dropped every semester. Andrea's rants also included the club's lack of motivated members and their inability to do well at large conferences due to said lack of motivation.
Not that Kate knew much about the school's extracurriculars, besides maybe fencing. She had been cutting class regularly over the past year in her latest attempt to be expelled. This tactic had worked at her other two schools. If Kate had her way, she wouldn't have gone to boarding school at all. But her father, disturbed by Kate's lack of direction and interest in academics, had given her an ultimatum: boarding school or live with him permanently in order to allow him to keep a closer eye on her education. Since Kate really preferred her current arrangement with her mother and Voron, she chose the former. However, he never specified whether she had to graduate from said school.
Damn it Ted. The man held on to her like a dying miser holding onto his last copper. The thing was, her father was a big donor to this school, and the school needed the money. Kate suspected that the donations were tied to her continued enrollment. In spite of her efforts, Ted kept coming up with weird-ass punishments. The last time she was strong-armed into his office, Ted decided that he needed to teach her 'responsibility' by making Kate help the school secretary. That lasted all of two weeks.
Maybe she could intimidate her way out. Beware the all mighty Kate Daniels. Kate gave Ted most menacing glare. "Sorry, can't. Fencing."
Ted looked like he was going to have an apoplexy. "Then you will have to miss fencing."
"But-"
"You're under the mistaken impression that you have a choice, Miss Daniels. You will go to Model UN and make up your academic credits, or I will have to call your father about your attendance rate. He can have this discussion with you."
Hell no. Kate would prefer to limit her meetings with Roland to the occasional visit during school holidays. She'd rather stick needles into her eyes than have him come down to her boarding school and poke his nose around school campus. She likes to maintain a 50 mile radius, if not more, away from her father.
Kate sighed in resignation. "Fine. I'll join your stupid club." At least Andrea will be happy to get a new member, no matter how involuntary her presence may be.
***
The Model UN club was held in a forgotten classroom on the fifth floor that was only accessible through a staircase on the left side of the classroom building. Kate found that out the hard way. Her irritation levels, already high from having to miss fencing club, spiked even higher.
It was with great annoyance that she swung open the door to said classroom. Schooling her features into a hard expression, Kate surveyed the members of Model UN. She gave her menacing stare at the seven members, all of varying levels of nerd and preppiness. Her stare worked much more successfully with them than it did with Ted, because all but two refused to make direct eye contact with her. One was Andrea Nash, Kate's roommate and only friend. She never succumbed to any of Kate's intimidation tactics. The other was a tall, built guy with blond hair. His nose looked broken.
"Kate!" Andrea called from the far side of the room. She strode over to the door, beaming. "I'm so glad you could make it! We need more members."
Momentary guilt wormed it's way into Kate's consciousness. Andrea cared too much about this club to know that the latest Model UN member was not there of her own freewill. "Hi," Kate said.
"Let me introduce you to everyone," Andrea continued. She pushed Kate toward the center of the room. "Everyone, this is Kate Daniels. She's going to be our newest member." She waved her hand to the two students sitting in the individual desks. They introduced themselves as Barabas and George. Then Andrea pointed to the long table on the far side of the classroom. There was an empty seat in the middle of the table, which Andrea had presumably vacated. "Kate, these are our e-board members. They handle the permanent members of the UN Security Council. I do the UK."
The blonde girl sitting on the far right of the table coolly introduced herself as Desandra Kral, Russia. The next one was a male with intense blue eyes. He flashed Kate with a smile he probably thought was charming. Kate didn't think it was, but apparently Andrea did, because she avoided looking at him. "I'm Ralphael Medrano," he said. "China."
Kate knew the next member. With a shaved head and average features, Saiman had a reputation among the student body for his ability to turn anything into innuendo. And, well, his scarily in-depth knowledge of everyone in the school (including faculty and staff). "Kate," he said, "what a pleasure to meet you. I'm Saiman. France."
Kate did a mental eye-roll. Apparently the blond-haired guy who hadn't cowered before her menacing glare agreed with Kate, because he actually rolled his eyes at Saiman. "Curran Lennart," he spoke in an authoritative voice. "United States." He looked Kate up and down, as if evaluating her value to this dying club.
This was going to be a long year.